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Google Changes Map Listing

August 30th, 2015

Neville Greenwood

Another day, another Search Engine Optimisation change for Perth companies trying to get business. A few weeks ago Google change the local business/map listing as displayed in the search results. For many companies that received regular phone calls from these map results, the phone has gone silent. This has caused a bit of a panic among some businesses that were already struggling to create leads from the website.

What has changed? Well instead of displaying 7 listings Google is now only displaying 3. This is good for those in the top 3 and bad for the bottom 4.

Previous Google Display for Search Results Google

New Google 3 Pack Display for Search Results Google

The new Google 3 Pack is now displaying only 3 listings, so this will affect many businesses. But there are ways to get yourself on the 3 pack or the “snack pack” as some people are calling it.

Firstly you need to get listed in the important business directories such as Truelocal and Hotfrog. There are about 70 we use. It is important that every listing has the exact business name, telephone and address. If you create different addresses and phone numbers, Google gets confused and it affects your rankings. You also need to set up a google business listing and fill in your details. You will need to get a Gmail account. It is also very good to get business reviews from your customers. Once you receive 5 reviews, the 5 stars will appear on your ratings.

You also need to get good links to your own website and your directory listings if you want to rank your website. There are many factors that are required to get your website ranking. This is called SEO or search engine optimisation. We can help you if you have dropped off the map. Call Web Wizards on (08) 9350 9392